LAC News
"Defender La Vida Juntos: Defending Life Together"
By Lindsey Douthit
October 2009

As a teenage tourist traveling through Spain, and later as a college student studying abroad in Spain, I was often struck by the warmth of the Spanish people. My experience can perhaps best be summed up by a conversation I had with a cab driver in Madrid. While winding through the roads of the city, he asked me if I was an American. I answered that yes, I was an American, and his response truly touched my heart.

"Somos hermanos, los españoles y los americanos," he said with a smile ("We are brothers, the Spanish and the Americans").

Indeed, we are brothers. Like millions of Americans, many Spaniards maintain a passionate commitment to family and a determination to protect those most vulnerable in society. In correlation to strong religious convictions, another characteristic shared by many in both American and Spanish cultures, many also share a burden to defend the unborn.

We also share a daily experience of aggressive attacks on pro-life stances and religious liberty. Since the election of Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain has seen an assault on protections for the unborn. Zapatero is currently backing a bill that will further liberalize Spain's abortion laws by making it possible for 16-year-olds to get abortions without parental consent, increasing abortion without restrictions to 14 weeks, and changing abortion from a crime to a social "right."

Dr. Esteban Rodriguez, spokesman for the pro-life Spanish organization Derecho a Vivir (Right to Life), stated recently that the law on abortion proposed by the Zapatero government would result in doctors being jailed for declining to perform abortions, would "make Spain the European country with the least protection for the unborn and pregnant women" and would "[deny] women information on the nature of abortion and [leave] the unborn totally unprotected."¹

Pro-life Spanish groups, as well as pro-life Spanish doctors who do not want to be forced to perform abortions against their religious objections or face jail time, are holding a march on October 17 to protest Zapatero's efforts to radicalize Spain's abortion laws.

To show solidarity with our Spanish brothers and sisters, Concerned Women for America and other pro-life groups such as the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, Christendom College, Human Life International, Christian Defense Coalition and others will meet on October 13 to protest Zapatero during his visit to the White House to meet with President Obama (another ardent abortion supporter). Pictures of Americans protesting Zapatero's visit will be sent to Spanish pro-life groups to encourage Spanish pro-lifers before their march.

This is a perfect way for pro-life Americans to support our Spanish friends and to show that, indeed, "somos hermanos, los españoles y los americanos."